Promises I Made Myself

ABV: Less than 0.5%
Calories per 100ml: TBC

This is a guest review by Hugh Davenport, who can be found on Instagram at Moderating Alcohol with Monty.

This alcohol-free IPA is a collaboration between two small breweries: Newtown Park in Bristol and Lowtide from neighbouring Bath. I can certainly relate to the name of the beer, and appreciate the new-found humour injected into the industry by many of the smaller craft brewers.

I drank it at room temperature, as I do with most beers – I find that chilling beer too much kills the taste of the hops (although it does say on the can “store cold”). Many craft beers make a virtue out of being unpasteurised and unfiltered, as does this one, which might explain why the instruction “drink fresh” is also on the can.

This is the first craft style, cloudy alcohol-free beer I have tried. It was very refreshing, especially on the hottest day of the year. Although, I was struggling to pick up all of the “papaya, mango and grapefruit” promised by the brewers, until I neared the bottom of the glass, when I did start to pick up some of the fruit flavours and the “resinous note”.

All-in-all, as my first step into the world of more “trendy” alcohol-free, craft-style beers, I did enjoy this. Can Newtown and Lowtide truly bring craft beer flavours to the world of alcohol-free? This quest of theirs has so inspired me, that I WILL be popping into my local craft beer shop and asking for their alcohol-free recommendations.